Continuing to Look for St. Francis Xavier Jesuit Chapel

Scott Lawrence and Dr. James Gibb are continuing to look for the 1661/2 Jesuit Chapel in the St. Francis Xavier Cemetery at Newtown, St. Mary's County.   5' x 5' units are being excavated.  The site is completely clear and is situated away from known burials.

CCASM members are welcome to participate.  

Next dates they will be at site           check weather forecast
TBD    8am-4pm, but it is not necessary to volunteer for the whole day.

Contact Scott for more specific information.

St. Francis Xavier Cemetery
21370 Newtowne Neck Road
Leonardtown, MD 20650 

To see the report on the previous work done at the site  Search for Newtowne Chapel Report - May 2012

Tour of Shuter's Hill Excavation Site

On Saturday August 11, 2012, CCASM members Barbara Kane, Joshua Eller, Rich Gorski, Phil Angle, Elsie Picyk, and George Picyk toured the Shuter's Hill Excavation Site that is on the grounds of the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA.   The tour was led by City Archaeologist Garrett Fesler.

Shuter's Hill is the largest piece of undeveloped land in Alexandria.  It appeared to be about 15-20 acres.  In the 20th Century a golf course was built on part of the property.  That and re-grading associated with the construction of the Masonic Memorial may have impacted some of the archaeological deposits.  Archival research indicates a late 18th Century plantation house and associated structures and two 19th Century houses.  The property also includes the site of two civil war forts.  The site of one fort - Fort Ellsworth - was partially destroyed when a 20th Century apartment building was constructed over part of it.  Also there is some limited evidence of prehistoric occupation -- some points but only one piece of prehistoric pottery.

For the last couple of years Alexandria Archaeology has been excavating an area that includes the 1850’s house that was built partially over the site of the 18th Century laundry.  Work on the Laundry is particularly interesting because in general there have been limited archaeological investigations of laundries.  Ground penetrating radar survey and STP’s conducted in the past have not identified the location of the other 2 houses.

CCASM sponsored the tour.
Thanks to Elsie for this posting and Barbara for the photos.
 
Alexandria Archaeology has been investigating the Shuter's Hill site since 1995.  Click for more information about the site - Shuter's Hill Brochure

At Arsfest 2012

CCASM was at Artsfest in LaPlata on Saturday June 11. 

Barbara, Carol, and Josh talked with people, handed out all our brochures and had a good time.

And people enjoyed looking for the seeds (a kid's version of archeobiology).

At Cobb Island Days 2012

CCASM was at Cobb Island Day on Saturday June 2.  It was on the Old Fisherman Field.

Elsie Picyk, Joshua Eller, and Rich Gorski had fun talking to all the people that stopped by the CCASM table.  They gave away lots of War of 1812 archaeology posters & pamphlets, and a number of people were interested in next year's proposed excavation of the Barney's ship.

In addition to many of CCASM's regular exhibits, Rich had put together several new interactive activities for children.


It turned out to be an enjoyable day.  Since our booth was next to one from a alpaca farm, we also learned a bit about alpacas.  Their coat is sooo... soft.

In case you didn't notice it, we now have a new blue canopy.  The canopy we had previously borrowed was no longer available, so we now have one for events such as this.

2012 ASM FIeld Session

The 2012 ASM Field Session was May 25 - June 4 near Historic Elk Landing in Cecil County, and seven of our CCASM members were able to attend at least one day.  This includes Jim Gibb who was one of the Principal Investigators for the session.  Others there were Carol Cowherd, Barbara Kane, Elsie Picyk, Brogan Roland, Annetta Schott, and Belinda Urquiza.

Belinda at Registration Table

Dr. Charlie Hall's CAT Workshop
(Can you find Barbara?)

There were two areas where people could volunteer 

• Looking for Native American features in the corn field (Dr. Bob Wall - Principal Investigator)
  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  

  Dr. Bob Wall

  
  
  
  
  Elsie volunteered in this area. 
  
  
• Looking for ditch associated with War of 1812 embankment at Elk's Landing in order to ground truth GPR data (Dr. Jim Gibb - Principal Investigator)
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  Dr. Jim Gibb

  

  
  

  

  (Can you find Carol?)

  

  Hole filled with gravel

  
  

  

   Part of the ditch (now filled with rocks)

The Field Session is sponsored by the Archeological Society of Maryland, Inc. (ASM) in cooperation with the State Office of Archeology.  CCASM is a chapter of ASM.